Natural Killer Cell Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity (ADCC) Activity Against Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Red Blood Cells

Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) is a mechanism of cell defense that bridges the innate and adaptive immune systems. ADCC has been found to be a major route of immune protection against both viral infections and cancer. Recently, natural killer (NK) cell-mediated ADCC has been shown as a mechanism of parasite clearance and protection against malaria (Hart et al. J Exp Med 216(6):1280–1290, 2019). NK cells bind to antibodies on the surface of Plasmodium falciparum infected red blood cells (iRBCs) via their Fc receptor, FcγRIIIa (CD16). This interaction induces the release of lytic granules (degranulation) by NK cells, which contain perforin, granzyme B, and granulysin, as well as the secretion of IFNγ. ADCC subsequently limits the growth of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro (Arora et al. Elife:7, e36806, 2018). Because NK cell-mediated ADCC has been shown to be important in malaria parasite clearance and protection, further studies understanding ADCC in malaria are warranted (Hart et al. J Exp Med 216(6):1280–1290, 2019). Therefore, this protocol describes methods to perform an in vitro ADCC functional assay with iRBCs. Specifically, it includes protocols on how to grow and culture iRBCs, how to culture peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBCs), and how to do in vitro PBMC assays to measure NK degranulation and IFNγ production as measures of NK ADCC function.